Fernwood Coffee Company Strongback Blend coffee bag with a striped bag on a light beige background

Fernwood Coffee Company Strongback Blend coffee package with a striped design on a beige background

A bag of Strongback Blend sitting on a shelf with a plant.

Two 5lb bags of Strongback Blend on a beige background.

A person pulling a bag of Strongback Blend Coffee from their camping backpack outdoors in a forest.

Strongback Blend

Name: Strongback Blend
Brand: Fernwood Coffee
Price: 22.0 CAD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.69 (29 reviews)

$22.00

Smoky aromatics and dark chocolate define this dark-roast coffee, built from South American coffees. The cup is dense with a heavy body and lingering finish. Strongback Blend is roasted to our deepest profile to be bold, robust, and uncompromising — a dark coffee built for strength, intensity, and early mornings. Great with cream and sugar.

Cup Profile:
Smoky aromatics, dark chocolate

Region:
Peru

Roast:
Very dark

Not sure where to start? Check out our Coffee Quiz!

Grind Whole Bean

Whole Bean French Press Drip

Size 454g

454g 5LB

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Brew Guide

These brew guides are built by our Roastery team to help you brew great coffee, every time. Each method outlines a clear process designed to bring out the best in your coffee.

Fundamentals

Preheat your brewing vessel
Weigh your ingredients
Make sure your brewing vessel is clean
Use water that is almost but not quite boiling
Make sure to wet all the grounds evenly
Rinse any paper filters with hot water before use
Be sure to grind the coffee to the correct coarseness for the brewer you are using
Fresh coffee will "bloom" which is CO2 being released as hot water hits the coffee
To adjust strength change the grind, not the ratio of coffee to water. For stronger tasting coffee grind finer for less intense flavor coarsen your grind.

Conical Pour Over

Wet filter with boiling water and discard water
Put in 20 grams of medium ground coffee
Pour in 100 grams of water & allow coffee to bloom
Pour in remaining 240 grams of water little by little & use the stream of the water to push any grounds off the sides of the filter
When all water is in stir once in a circular motion
Let drip till done

French Press

Put in 55 grams of coarse ground coffee
Pour in 935 grams of water just off the boil
Stir
Fit top on to retain heat and wait 4 minutes
Plunge
Decant to another vessel

Aeropress

Place the top portion of the brewer upside down on table
Fit the bottom section over the rubber basket (At this point the numbers should be upside down on both parts of the brewer.)
Put in 15 grams of medium ground coffee
Pour in hot water to top (around 250 grams)
Stir and make sure there are no dry grounds hiding at the bottom
Let sit for 45 seconds
Affix the filter cap with a wetted paper filter into the fitting (this should be at the top at this point) and depress a tiny bit so the slurry is close to the filter.
Carefully invert the entire brewer onto your heated mug and press to the bottom.

Perfect pairings

This dark roast coffee receives high praise for its smooth, rich flavor without bitterness. Customers said it's "amazing fresh taste" and "the strongest dark roast" they've tried. Works well for lattes and Americanos. However, some found the beans lighter than expected and lacking true dark roast intensity, with a few disappointed by the medium-like appearance and taste.

The best morning

I love this full bodied coffee. Amazing fresh taste from the comfort of my home

Simply the best

This is my #1 go to coffee. I even share some (a little) with my mother in law. Still in the good books because of it. Thanks, Fernwood team :-)

Can't survive without it

I use a Miele cappuccino machine. It works perfectly in it.

Seriously dark!

This is my second go-to roast from Fernwood when I’m not drinking 1967. They really do mean dark with this one. The strongest dark roast I’ve tried across a variety of brands/roasters, but still very easy to drink.

Smooth yet bold

Love this coffee.

Love it

Some mornings I feel like a very dark blend and this is my favourite! Delivery to Vancouver was quick.

Scrumptious

We started buying the 5lb bags of Fernwood's Strongback Blend and love the consistency of a great cup of coffee. It makes both Americano's and Lattes beautifully - we love every cup!

Amazing

Found this shop when my daughter was attending college. Loved there coffee and now I love being able to drink it at home 🥰

Delicious

Every cup is amazing! We love Fernwood!

Perfect way to start the day

This is probably our favorite roast and we look forward to starting our days with it.

Not a Dark Roast

The flavour of this roast is OK but it is definitely not a dark roast. The beans are a medium brown and the flavour lacks the rich, bold, deep coffee flavour that a true dark roast coffee drinker requires.

Tastes like a medium roast

I tried the regular dark roast and it was not dark at all, so I opted to try this "very" dark roast. As another reviewer commented, I was confused when I opened the bag as the beans looked very light. The taste is not very dark at all.

High Quality Coffee

Great coffee.

Disappointed

When I first opened this coffee I thought it was a mistake. The beans appear light or medium roasted, but the website tells me I’m wrong to expect dark roast to be dark. The flavour is not what I was hoping for and I’m abandoning the bag.

My favourite coffee

This particular roast is my favourite! Fernwood coffee has been my go to coffee for a long time and never disappoints.

Tastes great!

I really enjoy Fernwood coffees; I don’t find even the “very dark” “Strongback Blend” to be too strong or bitter. In fact, I found the “Strongback Blend” to be similar to the “West Coast Trail Blend”, even though the former is labelled as “very dark” and the latter is labelled as “dark”. I have actually mixed both of them half-and-half with a Starbucks blend (“True North”), that I’m trying to use-up, and that’s good too.

Love this subscription!

Favourite coffee to our door in two days! So thankful 😌

Great thing to wake up to!

Glad we found Fernwood. This is top grade coffee and a pleasure to enjoy!

So good!

Such a full flavour! Love this stuff

Great choice!

My wife and I prefer darker, richer coffees so we purchased Sumatra from Starbucks for years. After receiving this as a present from my daughter we tried it and fell in love. Visitors also say that they find it a pleasing change from their usual.

Trio of Goodness

I have 3 bags of Fernwood coffee. This coffee helped me to enjoy dark roasted coffee. A smooth blend to savour in the morning.

Strongback blend

I am a new online customer. Ordered 1 bag of each of your blends to try. Strongback has become my favourite and is one I will continue to order. It is very smooth and rich and tastes great to the last drop in my cup. 👍🏻👍🏻☕️

The proof is in the cup

We ran out of coffee this week so I had to fill in with our old standby, Starbucks Sumatra. Needless to say that after the first sip I realized why I switched to Strongback Blend. No bitter aftertaste.

Awesome coffee as usual.

Reminds me of Italy

Dark, nutty, chocolatey. Very delicious. Runs through a Gaggia Classic very well.

My favourite

I was never a dark roast coffee drinker but this one won me over.

My morning brew

We’ve tried many different brands of coffee both commercial and boutique. We find that most them do not give the pleasure we get drinking this blend. Thanks Fernwood.

Nice dark balance

I’ve moved from NS to BC a few months ago and tried so many roasters and roasts. This is by far my favourite from BC roasters. Nice roast balance, awesome crema, and consisting roasting between batches.

Great

Strongback Blend

Customer Reviews